In “Three strikes and you're in,” I endorsed the idea that what Springfield needs to make its economy perk is the entrepreneurial energy and enterprise that immigrants supply. Turns out that the Small Business Administration commissioned a report on that idea in 2012. Robert W. Fairlie, an economics professor at the University of California at Santa Cruz, concluded that the business own...

A year after passage, Illinois has yet to receive any money

A gambling expansion that is supposed to raise $300 million a year and help pay for statewide infrastructure improvements has yet to be implemented, more than a year after it became law. Gene O’Shea, spokesman for the Illinois Gaming Board, which regulates video gaming, says the board has no timeline for implementing the system. The Illinois Video Gaming Act, which legalizes ...

Green spaces, safety, economic development on list of goals

A Springfield-based community group is hoping to make the contentious arrival of high-speed rail into a blessing by making sure 30 percent of the jobs from the project go to local disadvantaged worker...

Trenda Kennedy has seen the recession up close and personal. The Springfield resident lost her job when the economy tanked because her company closed its Illinois office, and she soon fell behind on h...